Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Cabeza de Vaca P004 – In-Edit special

I promised when
I named the show Cabeza de Vaca that we would cross uneven and unexpected
terrain and so it is that we end up playing almost all punk and no electronica
in the most recent show!
Well a couple of tracks anyway.

All the tracks
on the program today were chosen to coincide with the 10th edition
of the Beefeater In-Edit International Festival of Music Documentaries held this time every year in
Barcelona (last year’s review can be found by clicking here).
Because of the local nature of the festival I chose to do the program in
Spanish this time, a first, and more difficult than I thought, but then it was
late and I was tired and I am always rushing with preparation. Not a perfect example
of the language, but not too shabby either. But apologies for saying repeatedly
that Paul Weller was from The Clash and not from The Jam… I had one ear/eye already on Joe Strummer
and The Clash. But That’s Entertainment!

The origins of
the show actually came from an idea to do one about LCD Soundsystem’s track “Losing
my edge” which I will still probably do in the future when the promos and new
releases dry up a bit. Their track doesn’t need too much more introduction
other than the film itself which will be eagerly awaited by many:

As part of the
LCD show I had wanted to play the Talking Heads track “Cross-eyed and painless”
from “Remain in light” as it always reminded me of LCD Soundsystem, even though
it doesn’t feature on the official list part of “Losing my edge” that was to be
the basis of the show. That said, neither does Can appear, perhaps the other
critical group for triangulating the LCD sound, although Can does get a more official
mention in the main lyrics. Looking forward to seeing the full feature of “Stop
Making Sense” which seems to be one of the more pioneering live concert films
ever made for different reasons, including staging, lights and so on.

The punk stuff in
the show we have more or less dealt with serendipitously in different posts including
the one on punk and the
second show which dealt with Tresor, Berlin and Detroit.

The only things
additional to report here, especially for the English speakers who won’t catch
me saying it in Spanish are the fight between Paul Weller and Sid Vicious over
the Sex Pistols use of the bass guitar riff from “In the city” in “Holidays in
the Sun”. The damage done by Weller on Vicious was apparently permanent (at
least until his death not long after) with the irony being that Vicious had
been incensed that Weller had dare claim that the riff was stolen, when all and
sundry knew it had been, but he’d felt it worth fighting for anyway.

I chose to put
in the live version of “New York” recorded at Chelmsford Prison, one of the only
prison gigs I know of, except for Elvis Presley’s “Jailhouse Rock”, Johnny Cash
in St Quentin’s prison in 1958 and The Cramps playing, of all places, California
State Mental Hospital on June 13, 1978.

“Somebody told
me you people were crazy, but you seem alright to me”

- Lux Interior

There is a great
joke and insult by Johnny Rotten at the end of the track where he says

“Best captive
audience I ever played for. Boring, you’re boring me. I bet you all have piles
from sitting down too much”

Joe Strummer has
two films about him, the more well-known Julien Temple film “The future is
unwritten” as well as a Spanish film “Quiero tener una ferreteria en Andalucía”
(y no “Quiero hacer una ferreteria en Andalucía” like I say in the show – lo siento
mucho).

Finally, in the
Joy Division track (another track from Jon Savage’s compilation) you can
apparently hear the group eating crisps (patatas) at the start of the track, well
drenched in reverb by Martin Hannett.

The Ice T track
was chosen as it relates to the three films that he stars in, or appears in in
the festival this year that relate to Hip Hop.

“Planet Rock: The
Story Of Hip Hop And The Crack Generation”,

“Something from
Nothing The Art of Rap”

And finally “Uprising:
Hip Hop and The LA Riots”

The track “New
Jack Hustler” from the “O.G. Original Gangster” album of 1991 is also one of
the first examples of gangster rap, but was also used in soundtrack to the
Mario van Peebles-directed film “New Jack City” starring Wesley Snipes as well
as Ice T and Chris Rock amongst others.

Those with a
keen sense of humour might also see the irony in the use of the term “O.G.” for
“Over gold”, a syndrome by which African Americans die in ghettos from wearing
too many gold chains a-la Mr T in the blackploitation comedy “I´m gonna get you
sucka” which also stars Chris Rock as well as Isaac Hayes and was directed by
the Keenan Ivory Wayans of “Scary Movie“ and more fame.

The classic
scene with (young) Chris Rock and Isaac Hayes:

Rest of the
tracks don’t need too much explanation, though arguably you shouldn’t mix Sigur
Rós with The Doors too often, but, as Paul Weller says, “That’s Entertainment”.
Enjoy the festival and the show!